Dark Shine
by Pen Name of Names and Pens
Summary: It's the classic prophecy. Good against evil, beauty against ugliness, perfect against irredemable. And StarClan will do anything to make sure that the prophecy goes to plan. Anything.


**I'm sure you know the story. StarClan sends prophecy, Mary Sue is part of said prophecy, Mary Sue defeats evil brother. Everyone loves Mary Sue. **

**I'm sure it must be hard to fill the role of a Mary Sue if you are real, if you have flaws. And I'm sure StarClan has seen this happen so many times that they're not going to let there be any flaws. **

**What if everything relies on your flaws? What if you can't be yourself, and you have to be a martyr? **

**What is everything relies on you being irredemable? What if your whole purpose in life is to be killed?**

It's the classic prophecy. Good against evil, beauty against ugliness, perfect against irredemable. And StarClan will do anything to make sure that the prophecy goes to plan. Anything.

A beautiful silver she-cat speaks to her adoring Clan. 'Now! My brother may be strong, and his followers may be many, but we must not give up hope! We will be strong! We will be good! We will represent the light… and we will win!'

There is a cheer, and they settle down to eat.

Shiny red berries. A single gray paw shoved into a squirrel. Even, gleaming white teeth sinking into the fur and flesh. A slender silver frame spasming. Intelligent, beautiful blue eyes glazing.

That's the first time.

A beautiful silver she-cat hisses to a dark gray tom. 'We will never let you win! You are _evil, _brother!' She leaps.

Blood. A whirl of pelts and screeches. She can't see. A single slash of claws. She collapses.

The second time.

A beautiful silver she-cat glances at the ground. '-Thornstar, I have special powers. There was a… a prophecy. About me. StarClan granted me with these powers.'

A medicine cat summoned. A conformation that he has had no word from StarClan. Poppy seeds. Sleep. She screeches. More seeds. They taste good. She gives in.

Sleep. Seeds. Sleep. Seeds.

'It's true! I'm going to save the Clans! Let me _go!' _

Seeds.

Sleep.

She wrestles control from the poppy and flees the den. Then she leaps from the top of a boulder. She wants to prove that StarClan are with her. She wants StarClan to let her fly. And then they will believe her.

But it's been moons. Many are dead, including her brother. The threat was finally defeated, with difficulty, without her. And StarClan have abandoned her now.

She was the third.

A beautiful young silver she-cat creeps out of camp. The moon is huge and pale and almost full. She admires it, and feels her powers stir deep inside her.

The fox lunges.

That was the fourth.

And more. Slit throats and the slick of blood and powers failing at the wrong moment and eyes gouged out and remorse and kits starved and the sting of greencough and suicide, so many suicides.

That was when Thunder raised his head and stared at the stunned cats around him.

'Do you see?' he asked coldly. 'Can you see how many times this has happened?'

Spottedleaf was frozen, her mind still churning with the hundreds of identical dead she-cats she'd just seen.

'This prophecy is simple. We create the ultimate good, who can save everyone. We create the ultimate evil, so there will be a definite cat to defeat. This shouldn't be happening. The she-cats are supposed to be _perfect, _and it's obviously their own flaws that got them killed. We give her beauty, we give her power, we give her strength… and she goes and kills herself because she can't handle the stress.'

Spottedleaf remembered one of the cats they'd just seen. One of them had been a kit, a kit so scared of what she could do, a kit so ashamed that she'd accidentally hurt the leader with her powers… a kit who had run off and forced herself deep into bracken, letting the thorns tear at her, eyes gleaming with triumph as it happened.

'I have to do this. I have to keep her from being real. She… she has to be _perfect. _Even if it means destroying her. I've got to go down there. I've got to make sure everything goes to plan.'

He bowed his head. 'I hope I have convinced you. But I am a founder, and I need no permission. I'm doing this. And this time, the prophecy _will _go right.'

**That's just the prologue, but please review anyway! **


End file.
